Issue 4, Vol. 105 (2018)

The Czech Beseda dance represented an important and frequently chosen piece of salon dances repertoire in the Czech Lands which was often danced from the 1860s, through the era of the First Czechoslovak Republic and the period of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. However, only few dancers are able to dance the Beseda today. Both in the past and present, the Beseda represented an element of Czech culture, which has been frequently evoked, revived and practiced among Czech emigrants and expats abroad. Till the present it is possible to observe dancing of the Czech Beseda at social gatherings and cultural events of the Viennese Czechs. Through a theoretical perspective of ethnomusicology, respectively anthropology of dance, the aim of this study is to reply to following research questions: which form of the Czech Beseda do the contemporary Viennese Czechs dance? Where and in which contexts is it possible to encounter the Beseda dance with? Who is interested in learning and dancing the Beseda in Vienna today and why? Who does teach the Beseda in Vienna and how is it transmitted? Why the Beseda is important for the contemporary Viennese Czechs, which values and meanings are associated with the dance?

This paper presents the issues of architectural and spatial development of tramp settlements and campsites during the 20th century, with an emphasis on how the use of these sites changed depending on the degree of their formal recognition. It places this type of sites and buildings into the wider context of informal architecture research, and also discusses how the official recognition of such sites was related to changes in ownership and privacy perception.

Contrary to the currently prevailing neomarxist concept of hegemony, this study uses a model of participative culture in the research of popular culture. It is based on the idea of cooperation between agents of cultural industry and its users, especially in the environment of distinct subcultures. The author of the study complements this idea with the concept of the participatory game as a fundamental principle in the genesis and reception of popular culture. This game element is related to the concept of archetypal-mythical thinking, which is also characteristic of present-day man. This concept brings the sense of the sacred into popular culture. The author sees this phenomenon as particularly important, especially in the area of popular fantastical literature (science fiction, fantasy), the basic characteristics of which include the so-called sense of wonder. He presents fanfiction, in which “amateurs” recreate and reinterpret pop culture artifacts, as one of the specific creative expressions of religiosity on a game basis.

In this study, I pay attention to the linguistic means that weaken the effect of an asylum applicant’s speech at the court. I focus on selected words implying doubt, uncertainty, assumption, or presumption. The case study presents the partial results of the ethnographic research that took place at the hearings with the asylum applicants in 2015-2018 at the Regional Court in Bratislava. I pay attention to the linguistic practices which significantly influenced atmosphere of a hearing: the applicant was not aware of the expressions which were adjoined to his speech and weakened his argumentation. These expressions were not part of the official record. I interpret the linguistic means of identity construction at courts in accordance to the anthropological and sociolinguistic works of Diana Eades, Anthony Good, Katrijn Maryns, and Susan Philips. In a broader context, I also make use of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of production and reproduction of legitimate language.

With growing frequency, many digitalization projects aimed at the popularization of various issues concerning the so called traditional culture have been implemented in East-Central Europe over the last years. To meet the current needs associated with easy access to ethnological information, the Research Team of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas, functioning within the Faculty of Ethnology and Education (seated in Cieszyn) of the University of Silesia in Katowice, has undertaken an innovative attempt to elaborate, digitalize and provide access to the atlas materials (the deposit of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences). Since 2014 at the Faculty of Ethnology and Education in Cieszyn is implemented the project Polski Atlas Etnograficzny - opracowanie naukowe, elektroniczny katalog danych, publikacja zasobów w sieci Internet, etap I / Polish Ethnographic Atlas – scientific elaboration, electronic database, publishing the resources in the Internet, stage I.
The Polish Ethnographic Atlas is the only ethnographic archive in Poland the range of which comprises the whole area of the country. The PEA archives are a unique source on the history of rural Poland, collected by ethnographers, ethnologists and folklorists in the second half of the 20th century, however – they are insufficiently disseminated. The presented study is aimed at disseminating the effects of the discussed research project, with special focus on the specificity of the unique digital platform of the PEA, which functions as Cyfrowe Archiwum Polskiego Atlasu Etnograficznego / Digital Archive of the Polish Ethnographic Atlas. Currently, there are three collections of ethnographic data available on the platform: the photographs of the PEA (1954-1971), all published maps (1958-2013) and the PEA questionnaires on folk collecting wild plants for consumption and healing purposes (questionnaires with the numbers I-IV) (1947-1953) - about 13200 objects. All collections are worth sharing as they are of particular historical value for people interested in rural culture and are the most typical of the atlas activity.